Petals Falling
by Pretty P
Summary: IYYYH Kagome, lost in a land unfamiliar to her, discovers there's more to the Great Youko Kurama than debonaire and sly thievery and inadvertently helps him discover his heart. KagomeYouko
1. Like it or Lump it

Disclaimer: You cannot lose what you never had, so go ahead, take them if you must!_ –sobs- _But really, I don't own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho.

AN/ This whole thing takes place **right** before the group meets Miroku. So, right now it's only Inuyasha, Kagome, and little Shippo-chan.

And soon it will only be Kagome and Shippo…

Written to Sublime's Santeria.

-

The Fall of the Pale Petals

Chap. 1: Like it or Lump it

-

Indeed, it was a grotesque sight to behold, the troll. Its torso and arms were swollen with power, its veins and arteries nearly bursting through the scaly olive skin with their efforts to pump vital liquid to the inflamed heart. Foaming at the mouth, raving mad from the pain, the physical stress, the power, the beast roared and stopped once in battle to grasp its small head and bellow in absolute agony, its eyes reflecting inner torture. The shards were driving it insane.

"Inuyasha! The shards are in its arms and chest! In its heart, it looks like!"

The great, hulking, green oni slammed its fists down onto the ground, making the earth tremble beneath the hanyou's bare feet. A wide fissure snaked its way from where the ogre's humongous fists met the ground, splitting the land open under them. Kagome screamed girlishly and barely caught Shippo by the tail before she leapt away from the growing crevice that had wound its way between her feet.

Inuyasha spared the young, bungling girl a disparaging glance, but otherwise ignored the incident. With a mighty, rather badly aimed swing of the Tetsusaiga, the oni's shoulder spurted black blood and it screeched a pained, high-pitched protest. Flattening his ears against his head and clamping his eyes shut in a wince, Inuyasha never noticed the troll lumbering drunkenly towards Kagome and Shippo until it was too late.

"Aaaaaaiyeeeeeeeeee!"

Inuyasha looked up quickly to see the girl and the young fox held tightly in either of the oni's large, shard-enhanced fists, its one eye squinted in cruel amusement. "Shit," he swore softly, jumping up quickly and slashing wildly at the monster's chest. Unfortunately, his aim was off and the ogre was proving quicker on its feet than originally estimated. It ducked with a roar and moved to the side with surprising speed.

"I-Inuyasha! Help! Please!" Kagome shouted desperately. The giant only squeezed harder and the bow strapped to her backpack dug into her back painfully, making it more difficult to breath. She heard Shippo yelp from a full twenty feet away to the left of her, clenched in the thing's other meaty fist.

"Just hang on, I'm coming!" But no matter how he tried, the hanyou couldn't get in a decent hit. The shikon shard in the thing's heart seemed to be dissolving into its flesh and pumping more power through the monster's evil veins. Every time he swang, the oni would only dodge with growing speed and whack him into a tree from behind. Inuyasha was nothing if not resilient, though, and he got right back up every time and charged the beast head on again.

Kagome, seeing Inuyasha trying and failing to get the troll to release them, and her vision growing darker and more tunnel-like by the minute, reached behind her and stretched her arm. Groping for a second, she let out a triumphant "Ha!" that came out sounding more like a suffering wheeze when her finger was pricked on the sharp tip of an arrow. Frantically seizing the shaft, she brought it over her head and pierced the oni's fist. The arrow sunk into its thin, leafy flesh, glowing faintly with her purifying powers.

As blood oozed slowly from the wound, the beast roared with inhuman pain and Kagome promptly realized her mistake. She was soon sailing through the air, Shippo following close behind her, the fight rapidly disappearing out of sight behind them. She screamed for all she was worth (which wasn't enough to keep even with the jewel shards hanging around her neck, apparently) as the land blurred below their flying bodies. Hazy green forestry soon turned to indistinct tan and then to a deep azure.

"Oh, my god!" she screamed, as the land behind them quickly disappeared. Now, all she could see around her was blue. She looked back at Shippo, a feat considering the hair blowing into her face, and saw that he had a rather goofy grin on his face.

"Woohoo!" he shouted, looking like a kid in a candy store… or on a particularly scary carnival ride.

"Shippo-chan, this isn't a roller coaster! Come over to me!" She yelled, reaching her arms out to him.

He frantically flailed his arms and legs and worked his way through the air the few feet separating them, and Kagome hugged him to her, tears trailing behind their swiftly descending bodies. Just as a long strip of land appeared on the horizon in front of them, she noticed the water rapidly coming up to meet them.

With a tremendous splash and a chilling scream, they landed in the water. Kagome clutched the partial jewel at her neck to make sure it was still there and blew a steady stream of bubbles out of her nose, looking frantically around her searching for her little kit. She spotted him, floating peacefully, deathly still in the underwater world. Backpack weighing heavily behind her, she swam to him, grabbed his tiny hand in her own small one, and swam with her life to the surface.

As soon as she breached, she breathed deeply and slapped Shippo's cheeks lightly. When he didn't respond, she worriedly laid him over her shoulder and patted his back as one might do to burp a baby. Her 'pats' grew in hysterics to 'thumps' and then 'smacks.'

"Please, Shippo-chan, please wake up," she prayed, hitting his back harder.

There was a gurgle and then salty water spewed from the little kit's mouth in a fit of coughs.

"Shippo-chan!" Kagome squealed hugging him to her chest with all the ferocity of a relieved, slightly insane mother.

The kit hungrily gulped in air like a starved dog set before a feast, flailing his arms and legs. When he had calmed considerably, she hugged him again and cradled his little body in her arms.

"Are you alright, Shippo-chan?" she asked kindly, still kicking her legs under her to keep them and her pack afloat.

He nodded scarcely, and patted her cheek with a wet hand. "Are you?"

"Hai, I'm fine. I think we landed in the ocean," she hypothesized smartly, tasting the salt water in her mouth with a grimace, "but I see land that way." She pointed behind them, south, to the sliver of land on the horizon. The sun was high at noon, baring down on them with tenacity. "Stay on my pack and I'll swim us there, okay, Shippo-chan?"

So, nodding, Shippo climbed up onto her back to sit on top of the enormous bag and settle down for a _long_ ride.

-

"Oh, shit, shit, shit, shit," Inuyasha cursed loudly, clutching the corrupt jewel shard he recovered from the oni's body in a tense fist. There was no telling where they could be now. What was he going to tell her mother? He certainly couldn't tell her that her baby girl had been thrown half way across Japan by a giant oni hyped up on a fragment of an ancient jewel with unlimited potential.

"Oh, god, there's no way they could have survived that fall," he realized with horror.

But, he had to look. He had to know. He had to have faith. If Kagome could survive putting up with him, then just maybe she was still alive.

He had to hope. Kagome was his only friend, the only who had ever accepted him without question. And the fox, though thoroughly annoying, was swiftly becoming a fond acquaintance.

Somehow, he could feel it in his aching heart, they were still alive.

With that hope firmly stationed in his consciousness, he set off south and slightly east, in the direction his companions had been thrown only twenty minutes earlier.

-

On a random beach in Sengoku Jidai, Japan, there lay a rather unusual sight.

Crawling out from the ever-moving water, an oddly dressed woman-child dragging an oversized, overstuffed, overly sodden, yellow pack inched her way up the shore, panting heavily from exertion. She crept, on hands and knees, just out of reach of the chasing waves, and promptly collapsed face-first into the soft, white sand. A young fox kit whose exuberance didn't quite fit the picture of tiredness, hopped around, excitedly taking in their new surroundings.

He stopped suddenly, however, as he remembered his companion. Turning to her, his red ponytail bobbing with the movement, he scurried swiftly over to her unmoving body.

He poked her, testing. "Kagome?" he asked worriedly.

A muffled grunt was his only reply.

"Kagome, I think we should try and find Inuyasha." While he didn't want to hurt the poor girl's feelings (lest he invoke her merciless wrath), she wasn't exactly dependable in the "Protection and Safety from Evil, Bloodthirsty Monsters" department.

He climbed onto her shoulders and began jumping, trying to get her up and inadvertently offending her sore muscles. Kagome groaned, lifting her face from the sand and lightly dusting the tiny grains from all over her.

Easier said than done. She was sure she'd have sand mysteriously appearing in her bathwater from who knows where for at least the next week.

She giggled at her own thoughts, feeling the least bit better about their predicaments. At least she had her entertaining little musings to keep her company through what was sure to extend into a rather long, strenuous, probably life-altering ordeal.

Or life-ending.

Nope! She wasn't going to think like that! Sure, she was lost on a strange island with only her bow and untrained powers as protection and Inuyasha nowhere to be found, but at least she had Shippo-chan! And her pack!

Sighing, telling herself that things weren't as bad as they immediately appeared, she turned to Shippo with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "Okay, Shippo-chan, we'll travel down this coast and find a village and hopefully they'll let us borrow a boat. Or maybe we can hitch a ride on a ship or something, ne?"

"Sure, better than what I could come up with," he grinned, hopping up onto her shoulder.

Kagome smiled fondly. "I'm sure. But first, let me go change because these clothes are soaked and they smell like sea water."

The kit giggled and crinkled his nose in a show, scurrying back down into the sand to wait for her and the girl quickly disappeared into the tree line with her bag.

-

The continent had proved a lost cause. From Jiulong to Xin-Xiang and nothing but a few baubles and trinkets and a rather nasty wound in his shoulder from a particularly keen archer of an even more territorial war lord. It had healed within the hour, of course, but his ego had come out a little worse for wear.

Regardless, he had come out with at least one plausible fortune. Youko grinned proudly, fingering the pristine, white silk of his newly acquired and much loved tunic. His ears twitched slightly, though, when he heard poorly veiled footsteps coming closer to the tree he was currently resting in. He spread out his senses, feeling an extremely powerful aura moving towards him at a slow pace.

'_Hm… a _female _aura,' _the fox grinned inwardly.

His long, silver hair swished quietly as he silently crept through the branches towards the not-so-unwelcome disturbance, but not before completely masking his presence. Wouldn't do to have an enraged female barking up his tree all huffy and puffy and flustered and flushed and panting in fury with her kimono falling off over one pale shoulder, chest heaving, breasts rising and falling with the rhythm of her rage and…

Mm… maybe she _would_ do… er- _it _would do.

The distracted fox shook his head lightly, clearing his mind of the lusty thoughts. As he approached from downwind, he caught an intoxicating whiff of her heavenly scent that left his senses reeling. He stilled on his branch for a moment, eyes lowering to half-mast in something closely akin to pleasure.

He could smell her young, tender flesh, her limber bones, her sun-drenched hair, all tied together in a beautiful bow of sweet aroma, sprinkled with the calm scent of the rolling waves of the ocean. He wanted to roam his paws all over her pliant, little body.

'_Oh, delicious.'_ He simply could not wait another moment as he sped up with renewed vigor towards his newest pray. Youko moved with inhuman grace through the canopy, finally coming to what he had been chasing.

He'd never seen an aura so lovely, or a soul so pure and radiant. The air around the petite human seemed to glow with light. Youko had seen a lot of women. Wealthy princesses, beautiful ladies, the most skilled of geishas, and none could even compare to this one, simple woman-child.

Youko thought abstractedly to compare her to a star. Shining with soft, kind light, guiding the lost through the night back to their homes, she seemed to steal the beauty from the nature around her. Her bright blue aura, though, was marred only slightly by a tiny haze of gray grief hovering over her heart. It seemed, he thought, the world had thought to try to filch some of her light for its own greedy desires and left her soul scarred with sadness. The little star, it appeared, was faded from its full glory.

Shaking himself from his rather poetic turn of thought, he watched as the girl pulled on a garment that looked more like a colorful, second skin than anything else. The article was odd, like nothing he'd ever seen before, but definitely not unwelcome. Next she pulled a rough-looking, dark blue item of clothing over her curvaceous hips with a delicious little shake.

He nearly laughed out loud when she spoke softly to herself.

But it wasn't the girl's odd clothing that caught his attention. Nor was it the fact that she had the scent of fox all over her or even the brilliant shine of her sapphire colored eyes. It was the precious jewel hanging on a silver chain around the tall, sweeping column of her neck.

'_Beautiful…'_ He couldn't seem to tear his eyes from its glowing depths. As a thief, he had a dedicated appreciation to beauty and value, but… but this jewel was different. It seemed to entrance him with some kind of weaving, seductive magic.

He imagined it was even more gorgeous when whole.

A sudden image flashed through his mind's eye. Ripping the girl's throat out… devouring her energy… taking the jewel… growing, growing, rising, towards what, he didn't know, but it felt delicious and it felt wonderful and he had to hold himself back from jumping down there right then and forcibly ripping the jewel from the unsuspecting female's fragile neck.

He growled softly to himself and shook his head. He would not fall victim to a simple trifle. He was Youko Kurama, the greatest thief in all of Japan and China combined, damnit! He controlled his treasures, and not the other way around!

Looking back down at the girl, he found her to be looking straight at him.

-

Kagome sighed gratefully as she pulled dry clothes out of her giant bag. Luckily, she had had the foresight to pack all her essentials in smaller plastic bags. Clothes, medical supplies, foodstuffs, her school books, all conveniently found in their own little protective cover.

It had been raining heavily and the weather had taken a chilly bout two weeks ago when she had last visited home, so she had put everything in plastic bags in case they got caught in it… or in case Inuyasha threw another temper tantrum and decided chucking her pack into the nearest creek was ample punishment for whatever offense she had committed against his royal pompous person.

Either way, she decided, they had proved quite useful.

But, also as a result of the recent turn of the weather, she had only packed long skirts and sweaters. Well, there was one pair of denim shorts and a sundress. But they wouldn't go together. She'd just look ridiculous. And she really didn't want to wear the dress. It was pretty windy out on the shore and she really didn't feel like trying to keep a handle on her hem the entire trip to keep from flashing her underwear to the whole of Japan, so…

She sighed. _'I guess it's the shorts and bathing suit.'_

That decided, she quickly glanced around to make sure no one was coming and stripped. Pulling on the bathing suit in a flurry, she then slowed after she'd somewhat clothed herself. She didn't know why, but she had a creepy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"But," she reasoned softly to herself, "I don't sense any youkai, so I'm safe."

Nodding to herself, she quickly shimmied into the shorts and began to replace the clothes into her damp backpack.

The creepy feeling intensified acutely.

She… she was being watched. She could feel the familiar feeling of eyes roving over her body, undressing her in a so much more sinister way than if it had been physical.

She shivered.

Her head jerked up to the tree above her when a low growl was emitted. She stared intently at the spot where she thought it had originated. Nothing. No movement. Her view of anything was blocked entirely by the thick growth of ripe, green leaves. The feeling was slowly withering away now.

But then, there was movement!

-

Youko sighed silently in relief as an oblivious squirrel scurried down the trunk of the tree. The mysterious girl jumped back with a squeal, tripping over a tree root and falling onto her back with a thump.

"Ouch," she whimpered to no one, sitting up slowly and rubbing her already sore shoulders. Great, now her back hurt too!

"Damn evil squirrels." Muttering to herself, she stood and grabbed her odd bag and stomped back through the tree line in a fluster.

The fox mentally chuckled.

-

The sun was slowly setting and Kagome gladly announced to her companion that it was time to settle down for the night. The prospect sounded great to Shippo.

So, the sun setting low behind the trees, they walked up the beach into the forest line and hiked a few minutes until they found a decent camp site, gathering logs and sticks on the way. Under a large oak tree, one that Kagome had chosen because its aura and size vaguely reminded her of the Goshinboku, she set about building a small fire. She was infinitely thankful to Inuyasha teaching her how to do so. After she had a decent fire going, Kagome rolled out her dry sleeping bag and sat Indian style down onto the downy cushioning. She sighed tiredly, but then turned to her bag beside her.

Ugh… she'd have to lay everything out to dry. So, setting about the task, handing Shippo a sucker she'd found in the pocket of her shorts (purposely left there by Mama), she pulled everything that hadn't been safely wrapped up in plastic out on the ground.

Kagome shook her head sadly as she pulled out her now useless walkman. She popped open the lid and watched as water gushed out of the inside. Now what was she supposed to do for entertainment on the slow days? Well, she very much doubted there'd be any such days until they got back to Inuyasha.

'_Inuyasha,' _she thought somberly. She really missed his weird little quirks, his callous ways, his silly little tantrums. Okay, so maybe she didn't really miss the tantrums so much as how cute he looked _during_ the tantrum.

Her reverie was broken by Shippo as she set down the walkman to the right and slightly behind her.

Crawling up into her lap, the little fox sucked thoughtfully on his cherry flavored lollipop. "Kagome?" he asked around the sucker.

"Hm?" she answered, distracted. She was carefully taking out each waterlogged magazine, hair accessory, and afterthought item and laying them out in a semi-circle within arms reach.

"How long do you think it'll be till we get home?" He may as well have asked, "How long do you think we'll live without the dog?"

She paused as she was laying out her favorite manga, which was now completely illegible. "Well, I'm not sure, Shippo-chan. However long it takes for us to find a boat, I guess. But don't you worry, Shippo-chan, I promise I'll get you back home safe and sound, okay, sweetheart?"

He nodded pensively, missing her lack of mention of getting _herself_ back home.

'_I won't let Shippo-chan get hurt because of me. I'll keep him safe, even if it costs me my life!' _she thought determinedly.

She was brought back to reality by the weird feeling in her stomach stirring to life once again. However, thankfully, it wasn't nearly as bad as the last time. _'Maybe I'm coming down with something,' _she thought worriedly as her tummy felt like it was hosting a butterfly convention.

Kagome's head snapped to the right as she felt the air whoosh beside her.

Nothing.

She looked to the ground, suddenly noticing the absence of her broken walkman. Her head swiveled all around her, eyes searching for the missing device. It was nowhere to be found. "Damn thieving squirrels," the girl muttered irately.

Sigh. Another perished in the line of duty.

When the young fox kit looked up at her with a weird look, she smiled brightly and held up two small packages.

"So, what do you say to some Ramen, Shippo-chan?"

-

The perplexed fox turned the curious object over in his hands, perusing the strange item with a professional scrutiny. Lethal claws scraped lightly over the hard surface of the thing. The soft pads of his fingers wandered every slope, incline, and crevice.

For the first time in a very long while, Youko had no idea what exactly it was he had his paws on. He'd never seen the like. There were little buttons around the side and when he pressed one of them experimentally, the top jerked open, causing him to almost drop his little treasure. Determining through complex reasoning (no inanimate object could harm this Youko!) that this little development was not dangerous to his immediate health, he followed the thin cord attached to the side to a set of… well, he didn't know what.

There was a flexible, curved strip connecting two soft pads. Some kind of stint for a broken shoulder, perhaps? He curiously hooked it over his shoulder. It was a little too wide. What then? He laid the strange instrument over his head, carefully scooting it in front of his large ears, and it fit snuggly over the curve of his skull.

He waited.

Nothing happened.

What was the point of this gadget?

Cocking his head to the side in a very canine gesture of contemplation, he pondered over the odd girl and her foreign belongings. She had, he had noticed earlier when she and the young red fox were chatting, an odd accent, a certain pronunciation, a defining parlance to her speech that was simply unidentifiable to the Youko. Her voice was soft and pleasant, with a hidden lilt of seriousness that lie just beneath her tongue.

Youko's golden eyes focused once again on the girl when he smelled a delicious odor wafting up from the camp. Bored with the perplexing implement, he laid it back down silently where he had "found" it and turned his interest to the couple below.

He smiled softly when the girl, Kagome, as the kit had called her, playfully slapped the child's hands away from the bubbling pot of noodles. _'I wonder, does she have children of her own?' _he thought. For some reason, the idea fit her, a small, unnoticed piece falling into the puzzle, the corners of which were the only pieces he had yet to fit together. She looked like a mother. But, if she was indeed a mother, where were her precious little bundles of joy?

'_Maybe that is what sucked the light from her aura…' _ Youko shifted on his branch, content to just watch the girl and her kit chatter and eat their dinner. He made a mental note to somehow get some of those scrumptious-smelling noodles sometime they weren't being particularly alert.

-

Kagome sighed contentedly and snuggled deeper into the downy softness of her sleeping bag. Shippo shifted slightly beside her. Gazing up at the springtime night sky, her thoughts drifted off course.

What was Inuyasha doing right now? Did he even care that she was gone? She snorted. Not likely. Her brow creased in a hurt frown. What if he wasn't looking for her? What if he really wasn't bothered by her disappearance? Well, he did have Kikyo now to find the jewel for him, so why would he need her?

A lone tear slipped slowly down her cheek to plop onto her pillow, the fluff soaking up her sadness just as it had done so many other sleepless nights. Sometimes, she imagined her sorrow was so large that one day her pillow would just burst into a flurry of crystalline droplets of grief.

Something shiny caught her eye off to the side. She looked to her right, where her pack contents were strewn all over the forest ground. Her walkman was lying innocently on the thick roots of the oak tree. Her sleepy mind was too tired to process these implications.

'_Not lost in the line of duty… just missing in action, then…'_

-

AN/ OK, tell me what you think in a review. Maybe a comment, helpful criticism? Anything you wanna say, really, would be valuable. So, review if you feel like it, and if you don't… well, do it anyway.


	2. Kindred Spirits

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters. Note that I have used some quotes from the original English version manga, but I in no way, shape, or form claim to own the aforementioned material.

AN/ Well, sorry. I'm not dead. –everyone boos- I know, I know, you were so hoping… But, you can't please everyone all the time.

Suggested listening: Cascada's A Little Piece of Heaven

-

Fall of the Pale Petals

Chap. 2: Kindred Spirits

-

"Curse the man," he muttered to himself, fingering the rosary around his left wrist thoughtfully. "An antique dealer taking advantage of a man of the cloth…after all the trouble I went through to bring the goods."

The man shook his head in disappointment and patted the lumpy pocket under his violet robes. "Alas, my only profit is this Shikon Jewel shard. Just my luck." Glowering, he continued down the worn dirt path towards the next village. "Perhaps there will be more opportunities in Edo," wondered the man to himself, using the large golden staff he carried much like a walking stick.

An ox-drawn wagon passed to his left and two young women riding atop the hay on the back smiled and waved at him. He stopped and turned towards them to wave.

"Why, hello, ladies! Good morning to you," he said, grinning.

The man stumbled and fell on his bottom with an "Umph!" when something bumped into his shoulder and the women's giggles faded into the distance. Surprised, he turned and looked up into the face of an unhappy hanyou, pointy dog ears pinned back and fangs brandished.

"Watch where you're going, human!" he growled, cracking his knuckles in a show.

There was a tiny voice from the demon's shoulder. "Lord Inuyasha, I'm sure he did not mean to-"

"Excuse me, good sir," the man in robes said, lifting himself to his feet with the aid of his staff and dusting off his clothes, "but I was stationary and I believe it was you who ran into me."

Inuyasha had nothing to say to that. "Feh!" He lifted his nose into the air in a huff and tucked his arms into the sleeves of his haori.

"Please forgive Lord Inuyasha," again came the tiny voice from the hanyou's shoulder. "He is upset, because he has lost his companion."

"I didn't lose her, you little prick! I told you the oni threw her!" The half-demon pinched the little creature that appeared to the man to be some sort of talking flea between his claws and glowered menacingly.

"Yes, yes, of course, My Lord! I did not mean to imply that you would lose her on purpose!" the little flea pleaded, clawing at the hanyou's fingers as he squeezed him.

There was a squeak as the demon squashed the little flea flat and it floated softly to the ground. It groaned in pain.

"Excuse me, 'her'?" The man in garb asked tentatively, interest apparently peaked by the mention of a female.

"Oh, yes. Lady Kagome, My Lord's traveling companion." The little flea popped back into shape, dusted himself off, and hopped up onto the stranger's shoulder. "She is a woman from far away of the most unsullied loveliness! Young, tender flesh, breath-taking eyes, and blood like sweet nectar!" the little flea licked his lips and rubbed his two pairs of hands together.

The man looked down at the flea creature with intrigued, indigo eyes. "My, my! She sounds like a beauty!" The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully and leaned against his dowel. "As a man of Buddha, I could never refuse a damsel in distress. Especially one so young and pretty. I would be happy to join you, uh…?"

"Myouga the flea," the little demon introduced himself, hopping from the stranger's shoulder to the hanyou's. "And this is my ward Lord Inuyasha." The young demon snorted wryly.

"A pleasure to meet you both. My name is Miroku. I am a traveling monk. You do not mind if I help you in the search for Lady Kagome, do you, Inuyasha-san?" Miroku asked amiably.

Inuyasha, who had already resumed walking down the dirt road towards the southeast, did not turn his head to answer. "Do what you please, monk. Just don't get in my way."

Miroku smiled affably and began following the hanyou down the road, the rings on his golden rod jangling with every step. He turned his head to the flea when it landed on his shoulder. "Myouga-san, how did Inuyasha-san lose the Lady Kagome?"

"I didn't lose her!" came an angry shout from ahead of them.

Myouga ignored the hanyou and answered, "Lady Kagome and Lord Inuyasha were fighting-"

"_I_ was fighting."

"Ahem, _Inuyasha_ was fighting an oni when it picked up Lady Kagome and Shippo, a young orphaned fox kit that travels with them, and threw them far away," the flea explained, jumping up and down and waving his arms in excitement. "It is such a tragedy. Poor Lady Kagome is such a nice girl."

A dubious snort was heard from ahead.

Miroku pondered this for a moment. "So how do we know how to find her?"

"Well," Myouga said to him, "we plan to just ask around the towns. See if they've seen anything. And Inuyasha's got quite a nose on him, too. If anyone can find her, it'll be him."

"I see." Miroku lifted a garbed hand to his chin and stroked an imaginary beard thoughtfully. "Tell me Myouga-san, this Lady Kagome… How are her breasts?"

Inuyasha turned around with a cherry blush across his cheeks, snarling at the both of them. "What kind of holy man are you, monk?!"

Myouga laughed nervously. "Hehe, I wouldn't know anything about that sort of thing, bou-san."

"I spy with my little eye something… blue!" Shippo piped, skipping happily alongside Kagome as they trekked across the seemingly endless beach.

Kagome scanned their surroundings: ocean, sand, palm trees. She smiled and with exaggerated movements pretended to think deeply on the subject. "Hm… whatever, whatever, could it be that Shippo-chan sees? How aboooout… the ocean!"

"Kagome! You always get it!" Shippo laughed and scampered up onto her shoulder. "Gosh, Kagome. It's so hot here. Where do you think we are?" he asked, pulling at his clothes in annoyance.

"Well… I don't actually know, Shippo-chan. I can't remember which way we were thrown." Kagome didn't like to say it, especially to Shippo, but she couldn't lie to him. "But if you're hot, Shippo-chan, why don't you take your vest off? It seems like it would be awfully warm."

The little kit nodded and took off his outer fur vest and his haori, handing them to Kagome from her shoulder. She stopped and set her giant bag in the sand and knelt down to fold the clothes and place them carefully into one of the numerous pockets.

"It's a very nice vest, Shippo-chan," she told him, sitting down beside the faded yellow bag and leaning on it tiredly.

"M-hm," the little boy nodded, "Mama made it for me from a deer skin that Papa brought home for her one winter." He climbed up and sat beside her on the bag, fiddling with a strap, lost in thought.

Kagome fidgeted, regretting bringing up the tender subject of the fox's parents. She cast about for something to ease the tension until she felt her belly rumble at being neglected for so long. "I think it's time for lunch, don't you, Shippo-chan?"

She was relieved when he looked up at her beaming and nodding enthusiastically. "M-hm!"

Youko leaned back against the trunk of the tree and petted his tails fondly in his lap, watching the girl and the kit as they shared a bag of… well, he wasn't sure what they were. They were crunchy and smelled salty and came from a shiny silver bag, the likes of which he'd never seen. Such an odd girl…

His ears twitched when she mentioned something about her home. He leaned in and listened carefully for any clues of her obviously foreign origin. But she didn't give anything away; just mentioned how she and her brother liked to build something called a "sandukasuru" when they went to the beach. Her speech seemed guarded.

He leaned back to relax again when the conversation turned towards more mundane topics. There was a noise from deeper in the forest, a great rustling. Youko lifted his nose to the air and sniffed delicately, but soon regretted it when he caught a whiff of something rank.

'_A boar. Hm… I wonder how she will handle it?'_ The fox could hear it getting closer, probably attracted by the smell of the pair's food.

He listened as the animal got closer and closer. Still, there was no sign from the girl that she had sensed it.

'_Her chi is so large. She must be able to feel it.' _He watched with growing anticipation as the wild boar grew ever closer. Neither the girl nor the little fox showed any sign of detecting a trace of the approaching danger.

The boar was so close now that Youko could hardly bare the putrid stench that clung to the thing. And still the girl had not noticed. But the young red fox who sat munching on the snack beside her had lifted his nose to the air. Youko watched as the boy's brow crinkled pensively.

"Kagome?" Shippo muttered, wrinkling his nose childishly at the smell permeating from the nearby tree line. When his companion didn't answer, he looked over to her to see an odd look on her face. He vaguely thought it seemed sort of empty… like it wasn't really Kagome looking through those starry blue eyes.

Suddenly, Kagome blinked and expression returned to her eyes. Instead of the empty look, now there was worry. She had felt something just then. She couldn't quite place it… like a chilly premonition. Like she knew something bad was about to happen, she just didn't know what. It was frustrating, to say the least.

"Something's not right here, Shippo-chan." She looked down to Shippo, who was now cuddled in her lap, nose covered and a greenish tint to his cheeks.

"What's wrong Shippo-chan? Are you sick, sweetheart?" She asked him worriedly.

He nodded. "Can't you smell that?" came a muffled cry from her lap.

"Smell whaaaaaa- Oh my god!" Kagome yelped when the smell hit her like a brick wall. She ducked down and buried her nose in the fabric of her backpack. The dirty, sea-drenched bag smelled like roses compared to the gross stench now approaching from the forest.

A pig-like squeal sounded from the trees just before a huge boar burst from the foliage and onto the sand, beginning a mad dash towards the pair and the smell of food.

Kagome screamed and tossed Shippo from her lap just before the swine leaped onto her. The demon pig was twice her size and ugly as sin, a mess of dirty matted hair and gnarly gray tusks. It attacked and dug its huge wet nose into her stomach, sniffing furiously even as she flailed and screamed wildly.

She tried to get away as its tusks dug into her skin, but it wouldn't let her escape. She screamed again and tears ran down her cheeks as the pig's tusks ripped through her skin like a serrated knife.

It didn't quite register to Kagome when her vision began to go purple. She was too focused on defending herself from the demon's hungry mouth. But suddenly, a peaceful wave overcame her. This had happened once before. She grasped at her flying thoughts to remember, but couldn't quite place this familiar feeling as everything around her was floating away. Her mind began to fog and curiously, the pain slowly dissipated. She felt like she was levitating. In the far reaches of her mind, almost as if in the background, an inhuman scream registered in her mind.

That was the last thing she remembered before it all went blank.

He wasn't sure if he should get any closer. It had been nearly twenty minutes since she had completely destroyed the demon boar. He had been yards away and even he could feel the power behind that blow.

Youko approached cautiously, one step at a time, slowly inching his way towards the girl even as he postured himself so that to any passerby, he wouldn't be a nervous fox but a tall, proud demon with nothing to fear. But, if only to himself, he'd admit that he was a little disturbed by the giant outburst.

Her eyes had glowed with a purple light just before it happened, he could recall. He tucked this bit of information away for future reference. Then there was a large burst of pure white luminescence. When it dissipated, the boar was in three pieces and the girl's fox companion had been flung twenty feet away.

It all happened so fast, it hardly registered to him when he came to his senses that he had dismounted his tree and was already half-way towards her when the girl had let loose the enormous burst of energy. He would mull over this bit later, when he wasn't so… occupied.

His fur stood on end as he continued to creep forward. He took one step, stopped, and listened. He felt the air around him crackle with electricity. Still tiny crooked lines of white lightning jumped from the unconscious girl's fingertips.

As he observed the still form of the girl lying in the sand, her hair fanned out around her head like a black halo, he felt a twinge of pity for her. Her childlike features were drawn into a pained grimace as she slept in a forced slumber, unaware of the world. There was a large gash across each of her forearms where she had tried to defend herself from the boar's enormous tusks.

There was a movement to his left and he was gone before the girl's kit had a chance to see him.

Shippo groaned and sat up from the sand, holding his head in pain. Looking around him, he saw Kagome and the corpse of the boar laying in three pieces around her and suddenly remembered how it had attacked them.

"Kagome!" He shook off the sand and rushed over to her, ignoring the purple sparks still jumping from her hands. He patted her cheeks and whispered her name worriedly.

With a moan of pain Kagome was pulled from her sleep. The tiny sparks of electric energy dissipated immediately as she opened her eyes and warily sat up. She looked around in confusion and crawled back in a panic when she spotted the corpse of the boar demon in front of her. "Oh, gross!" she exclaimed, covering her nose.

"Kagome! You're Okay!" The little fox gleefully jumped up on her shoulder, nuzzling his face into her neck. She smiled fondly and reached up to pat his head, but hissed in pain as her wound was stretched. She looked down at the lacerations on her arms and then looked over to the pig.

She stared with horror in her eyes at the three pieces savagely torn apart, the corpse still steaming in the afternoon sun.

"My god… Did I do that?"

"Um… I think so." Shippo scratched his head in confusion, having recalled the bright energy that had sprung from his companion's hands just before he was thrown away from her.

"I…" Kagome didn't know what to say. "I didn't know I could do that," she whispered. She'd never killed anything with her bare hands. It was a little disturbing to think that she could rip something like that apart so easily.

"Well it was a good thing you did or we would have been that thing's meal!" Shippo scurried over to her pack and looked at the bag of potato chips lying in the sand. Kagome picked up the bag and looked inside. Sand was mixed in with the chips. They were inedible now. She sighed with exasperation and rolled the bag up, placing it back in her backpack. She always made it a point to take her trash with her. It certainly wouldn't do for any archeologists from the future digging up modern-day items dating from the Sengoku Jidai.

"It'd start an archeological riot," she giggled to herself. Shippo gave her a confused look and she quickly covered it up by suggesting they find some fresh water and somewhere to settle down for the night.

The girl was certainly a puzzle, Youko mused to himself, reclining in a tree near a clearing in the forest where his latest obsession had set up camp. They'd come across a small stream and settled down in the nearest clearing they could find. It was still a few minute's walk to the water.

He watched with amusement as the kit came stumbling into the clearing with an armload of small sticks he'd gathered off the ground. He tripped in the waning light of the sunset, his load scattering in front of him, and the girl immediately rushed over to him to make sure he had not injured himself. He almost smiled at the way her eyes sparkled with concern, the way his own mother's had when he had fallen when he was young.

Youko shifted in his tree, bringing his long tails around to cradle in his lap. He began to stroke them fondly, continuing to observe the strange girl as she helped the little fox gather the sticks and then proceed to show him how to build a fire. When she finished, she rolled out what she called her "sleeping bag" and then tucked the kit into it with a tender kiss on his forehead, saying that she was going to go bathe and she'd be back in a few minutes.

This, of course, peeked the fox's interest and he grinned deviously. He watched with anticipation as the girl gathered her bow and arrows and a few more items from her bag and then followed her eagerly into the forest towards the stream.

This, he was sure, would prove to be worth his while.

Kagome pulled her towel close around her as she stepped into the cold water of the creek. She waded out into the middle, throwing her towel to the bank when it was deep enough to cover her. She stood, shivering, in the moving water that came up to her waist, her arms covering her chest. Finally working up the courage, she closed her eyes and held her nose, quickly dunking the rest of her body under the freezing water. She nearly screamed it was so cold.

Whimpering in the chilly water, she moved over to the bank and grabbed her bottle of shampoo. Looking around to make sure there really was no one watching, she quickly lathered her hair and ducked back under once more to rinse it.

When she came back up, she laid the bottle back onto the bank and reached for her towel.

But it wasn't there.

Kagome's eyes widened as she looked frantically around her for the missing item, searching all the bank and even the branches of the trees. It wasn't to be found. She tried to think of what could have happened to it. She was only under the water for a few seconds.

'_Maybe…Maybe the wind blew it away.'_ No, the wind wasn't strong enough tonight to blow such a heavy towel away. She blushed from head to toe as she realized what this meant.

Someone had to have taken it. And if someone took it, then someone was watching her.

She shivered, the sudden chill having little to do with the freezing water rushing around her.

Kagome's breath quickened as she looked around her, searching her surroundings for any sign of the culprit. Everything was still. She cleared her throat nervously and looked back to the bank, seeing her clothes still folded neatly on her bag. Well at least the thieving pervert had left her those.

Swallowing hard, she rushed out of the water and dressed as quickly as she could, pulling on her shorts in just under four seconds. Cautiously, she rung out her hair and packed her shampoo, never taking her eyes off the silent forest around her. Looking around one more time in hopes of finding the missing towel and putting her fears to rest, but with no such success, she dashed back to the camp.

Youko snickered sneakily as he folded the towel carefully and laid it on the sleeping bag beside the resting kit before jumping back into the trees. He wanted to return the stolen towel to make sure that the girl understood that he meant her no harm. He simply wanted to play a little joke.

'_And what a good joke it is,' _he thought with a chuckle.Well, at least he'd gotten a good show. The girl had blushed from head to toe, as he'd seen.

'_Yes, I certainly saw from head to toe,' _he thought, grinning as he recalled the sight of the flustered girl pulling on her clothes as fast as she could. Not fast enough for him not to have caught a flash of her young, tender flesh, though.

He was pulled from his rather devious thoughts by the sound of the girl coming back into the clearing, her chest heaving from her run through the forest. He watched as she searched the clearing, still blushing furiously, and grinned when she spotted the towel.

She gasped and picked it up, touching it, unable to believe it was really her towel. She looked around her again, he guessed hoping to find some clue as to how it had gotten back here. When she found nothing, she sighed and placed the towel back into her bag.

Youko watched her lay her bow and arrows down beside her and wrap some cloth around her arms to keep the sand out of the wounds before crawling into the sleeping bag with the slumbering kit. With one last visual search, her eyes drifted closed and she joined her companion in sleep.

-

AN/ -snickers- You know, I hadn't actually planned on having Youko steal her towel in the first place, but when I started writing the scene, I just thought that that would be such a perfect "Youko thing" for him to do. Anyway, I think the chapter turned out a little shorter than usual, but it couldn't be helped.

I've thought about somehow bringing Kuronue into the story, but I'm not sure about that yet. I don't really think I know enough about his personality to do him justice. We'll see.

Indicate quotes from the original English version manga.


	3. Vulpine Chivalry

Disclaimer: You know the drill. I don't own any of the characters, only the plot of my little fic here.

AN/ -_singing- _It's been a long time, since I left you, without a dope beat to step to._ –dances around-_ Anyway, here I am again. It's been a long time coming… a ridiculously long time. But I've finally got a free weekend! YAY!

On a side note, there are BATS in my HOUSE!!! Or at least in my walls. I'm just mentioning this, because I'm sitting at the computer and I can hear them chirping somewhere above my head and it's FREAKING ME OUT!!!

When they were walking on the beach, I was imagining Kagome and little Shippo singing Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. How cute!

But on to the story!

Fall of the Pale Petals

Chap. 3: Vulpine Chivalry

-

Kagome smiled kindly down at the little fox kit following closely behind her as they sang a song she had heard on her last visit home. Most of her songs the fox knew by heart just from listening to her sing them. He had an amazing gift for memorization, though the ones in Chinese and English were always a little harder for him to remember, as he didn't know the languages.

He was singing an American song along with her right now and she knew he had only memorized the words and had no idea what they meant. Come to think of it, he probably didn't even know what America was.

Gradually, as the sun rose higher and the sand grew hotter, their singing died down and now it was quiet as they trekked across the sand, the wind whipping Kagome's long, unbound hair wildly around her face.

The journey was long, and in the back of her mind Kagome realized that it was starting to look a little hopeless as they had been walking this way for a week now and still had not found a human village. But this morning, she had awoken in a cheery mood and all day just couldn't shake the feeling that something good was going to happen soon.

'_After all,'_ she thought to herself, _'with so much bad stuff happening to us lately, we're about overdue for some good luck!'_

With optimism at the forefront of her consciousness, Kagome continued on down the beach with a little bounce in her step. Not much time passed before she felt a familiar weight on her shoulder and she turned her head to see Shippo staring back at her with wide green eyes.

"Kagome, I'm tired. Do you think we could stop and rest for a little while?" he asked sweetly, puckering out his bottom lip in a pout.

Kagome didn't need the pout to give in to his request. She was quite tired herself. Nodding with a smile, she stopped and set down her bag, taking out two bottles of water and handing one to Shippo.

The little kit took it happily and immediately swigged half of the bottle. Kagome sat beside him, leaning against her bag for support, and began drawing little symbols in the sand with her finger.

"What do those ones mean?" Shippo asked, leaning over from his seat beside her and pointing to a group of symbols she had just written.

"Those say 'Inuyasha'," she said quietly, her mind going to the hanyou.

'_Inuyasha… I wonder what you're doing without me…'_

She watched distractedly as Shippo copied the symbols below hers in sloppy, childish writing. She smiled fondly and traced a few more symbols in the sand for him to copy.

"This one is 'ocean,' this one is 'sand,' and this one is 'tree'," she told him, pointing to each one in turn. He did his best to copy them and after a few times, his attempts became neater and neater until they matched her own. He was a very quick learner.

"Great! Those look perfect, Shippo-chan!" she beamed proudly at him and he smiled back in that impish way of his.

After Shippo got tired of writing they played Tic-Tac-To, a game which the little fox had become quite fond of after she had first taught him how to play on one of those slow days when their were no jewel shards to be found. She smiled as she remembered how Inuyasha had reacted to the game.

She and Shippo had been sitting under a tree with Inuyasha in one of the branches above them, pouting as usual about having to stop and rest every few hours of non-stop walking. When Shippo complained that he was bored, Kagome had found a stick and drawn the board in the dirt and shown him how to play. He was, of course, overjoyed and pretty soon the games had progressed into a dissonance of "aaaaws" and "Yeah!"s.

Inuyasha had become curious and come down to watch what they were doing. After sitting down beside Kagome and watching a few rounds, he'd asked, "Can I play, too?"

He'd looked so childish then. His ears were perked forward, his eyes were wide with query, and there wasn't a trace of the normal scowl that always pulled at his mouth. He was just curious.

Before she could think of the consequences, Kagome had told him that it was only a game for two.

The effect was immediate. She only had just enough time to see the hurt look cross his face before he turned away from her with a "Feh!," ears lowered in anger.

Kagome, being the compassionate person that she was, immediately realized that this had probably been a flashback for him from his childhood. The other children probably hadn't let him play their games with them either.

She had to find a way to reconcile the situation.

An idea struck her.

She moved around Inuyasha to see his face. He turned his back to her. Again, she crawled around him to look him in the eyes. He turned around and ignored her.

Kagome huffed in annoyance and grabbed one of his furry ears to get his attention.

Her response was a growl. "What do you want, woman?"

She let go of his ear and he finally turned to face her with that oh-so-familiar scowl of his firmly in place. "I was just wondering if you wanted to play Magic Fingers with us."

The scowl didn't leave, but it had lessened a little as he turned around to play the game with her and Shippo.

'_I really miss him,' _Kagome thought to herself as she and Shippo moved to the shade of a nearby tree. Yawning tiredly, she laid back in the sand and relaxed. _'I'll just rest my eyes for a bit.'_

And she fell off into a light slumber.

Youko wasn't sure which was more amusing: the girl's singing or the odd little dance she was doing as she and the fox kit skipped merrily down the beach in the midday sun.

The sneaky fox slipped in and out of the shadows just beyond the trees, fallowing behind the pair quietly as they made their way down the shoreline, both grinning from ear to ear with no apparent cause in sight.

The miko, who he had taunted earlier this morning by surreptitiously throwing small twigs in her direction when she had her back turned, was singing an up-beat song in a strange language that sounded vaguely familiar to him and shaking her hips to a rhythm only she could hear. The tiny fox demon, tagging along beside her at her ankles, was singing loudly with her and was, Youko recognized with grudging fondness, slightly off-key.

Together, they made quite a spectacle.

Youko couldn't help but smile as the little fox skipped a few lines where he obviously didn't know the next words to the odd song, allowing the girl's talent for singing to shine through unhindered.

For the past few days he had been tailing them with his presence masked, and had come to find that he genuinely liked the girl beyond a physical sense. It had been only a few days since the encounter with the boar, and she had demonstrated on numerous occasions a strange ability to make anyone smile.

Granted, the young fox kit wasn't difficult to please, but even he had caught himself grinning when she said kind things to her companion or went out of her way to entertain him.

On one such occasion, they had been walking up the beach at a subdued pace late in the evening, the sun sinking on the horizon and casting an orange glow onto the shore's lone occupants. The little kit rested on her shoulder, fiddling with her hair in boredom, and mentioned in passing how "cool" he thought those flips Inuyasha did in battle were. (Youko still wasn't sure what this word "cool" meant or who the Hell Inuyasha was.)

Kagome had told the kit casually that she could do flips like that. Granted, she had elaborated, not as high or certainly not as gracefully as this Inuyasha, but she could do a flip or two. Shippo had raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. Obviously, he didn't believe her. Youko wasn't so sure he believed her either.

Until, that is, she had promptly set down the large bag on her shoulder with Shippo on it, turned to face the way they had come, took and deep breath, and jumped backwards onto her hands and pushed herself right-side-up again in one quick motion.

Shippo had squealed with joy and had gone into a frenzy of questions about where she had learned to do that, why she didn't use those kinds of moves in battle, and if she could teach him to do flips.

Neither Youko nor the miko had heard the end of it until she had put the little kit to bed that night.

Another thing he had learned about the miko was that she was obviously very well educated, which was an odd thing for a woman in this country. He had heard her speak three different languages so far, two of which he understood and the other one only sounded distantly familiar. She also had very fluent speech in her native Japanese tongue. And then there was also her ability to write.

Whenever they stopped for rests or food, the miko and kit liked to write in the sand with sticks. The kit was obviously a beginner with written language, and could only write his own name and a few kanji symbols for common words. But the girl must have been writing for years and made it a point to teach her young companion at least a few new symbols every chance they got. The little fox was overjoyed with being able to write.

Youko took a seat on a thick tree branch when the girl stopped for a rest and pulled from her bag those strange clear containers in which she kept their drinking water. He watched as she traced lethargic symbols in the sand and gazed distractedly at the words. He couldn't see what they were from here, but he could see that her eyes shined with unshed tears as she stared at them.

He heard her tell the young fox that they read "Inuyasha."

'_There's that name again. Who the hell is this Inuyasha?' _In their conversations, one named Inuyasha had been mentioned many times, but he still couldn't work out who exactly he was.

He knew that this Inuyasha was an adult male, had a nasty temper, could do flips, liked to fight a lot, and had once saved both the kit and miko from two demons called the Thunder Brothers.

But what was he to Kagome?

Well, Youko could confidently say that this man was definitely a demon. If he hadn't already seen how close Kagome and the little fox kit were he might have been more inclined to assume that this Inuyasha was human, as most humans would not associate themselves with demons. But Kagome seemed to be the exception.

And there was the simple fact of the guy's name. What human mother would name their kid "dog demon?"

So the guy was definitely of demon heritage. This led Youko to believe that Kagome did not have any sort of romantic relationship with this Inuyasha. After all, he could not smell the mark of a mate on the little miko and if Inuyasha was a demon and romantically involved with her, he would have marked Kagome.

And he obviously hadn't.

For some reason, this lifted some of the tension from the old fox's shoulders. Knowing that he was free to take Kagome as a lover (the idea of which he had toyed with numerous times as he watched the girl sigh and murmur in her sleep from his tree above their campsite) brought a devious grin to his handsome face.

Leaning back against the trunk of the tree, he pulled his silver tails into his lap and petted them languidly and watched the miko and kit move to the shade of a tree and lay out on their backs to rest.

It was a while later when he heard something crashing around in the woods behind him. He could sense the youki of a lesser demon not far off. His silver ears twitched and swiveled back; it was getting closer. And by the sound of its lumbering, it was large and stupid.

The fox leapt quietly through the branches over to the tree where the couple was resting. He surreptitiously peeked down through the branches, being sure to stay out of sight, to see that their eyes were closed and their breathing slow and steady.

'_They're asleep. Perhaps I should take care of this little nuisance and let her rest. She is only human,' _the fox thought to himself.

She looked so adorable lying there with the little kit curled up to her side. Again, his eyes were drawn to the broken jewel hanging around her neck, but he tore his gaze away before he could be pulled into its spell again.

Quickly, he stole away through the trees to the source of the crashing. As he approached, he could see through the trees the broken from of a small ogre. That is to say, small for the standards of the beast's species. The ugly thing still towered over Youko by several feet. But it was evident that it was neither powerful nor very intelligent, and the fox's furry silver ears lowered in disappointment when he realized that this fight would be far too easy.

'_Oh, well. At least it will be quick,' _he sighed.

Kagome awoke with a startle and shot up, looking wildly around for whatever had woken her from her quiet nap. There was nothing. But she felt like she had been punched in the gut.

Warily, the miko rose to her feet, laying the still-sleeping Shippo at the base of the tree they had been resting under, and turned around, looking in every direction for something, anything out of place.

A moment too late, she realized that the tingling in her stomach was her miko powers trying to alert her to the presence of a demon.

Something slammed hard into her left side, throwing her off balance and causing her to tumble into the sand. Quickly, she tried to catch herself on her hands, but all she got for it was a sickening pop as pain shot up her arm from her right wrist. Kagome screamed in agony and tried to pull her hand up to her chest, but realized it was being held down.

Looking to her right, she saw a man, no, a demon with violet hair and clouded crimson eyes. There was one jagged red stripe extending out of his hairline down his forehead. His handsome face was twisted in a wicked sneer as he held her wrists, one of which she was pretty sure was broken, above her head and snarled in her face.

"Give me the jewel, miko!" he rasped, reaching with his free hand for the glowing jewel around her neck.

His eyes were wild as he curled his clawed hand around the half-completed jewel. Kagome screamed as the demon ripped the necklace from her neck and rolled off her.

"No!" she yelled, struggling to get to her feet as the demon crouched beside her, holding the jewel to his face and whispering nonsense. By this time, she could hear Shippo yelling to her. "Just stay back, Shippo-chan!" she shouted. Hopefully, he would listen.

She tried to pull his arm away from the shikon, but he simply backhanded her into the sand without a second glance. As he looked into the luminous depths of the blackening jewel, his features began to twist and transform into something hideous. His skin turned a pale green and his eyes darkened to black voids as the poison of the jewel permeated his consciousness.

He was losing his mind to the Jewel of Four Souls.

Kagome cradled her wrist and watched in terror as the demon began to transform. _'Oh, Inuyasha. I wish you were here.'_

Just when she thought the situation couldn't get any worse, she again felt the tingling in her stomach and looked immediately toward the trees where she could feel something dark approaching.

All she saw was a silver blur before the demon beside her suddenly stopped moving and the sand was splattered with a line of blood.

"Wha-?"

Kagome watched, mouth agape, as the demon slowly split down the middle of its body and fell into two bloody pieces, the jewel falling into the dampened sand in front of them.

Kagome was speechless. She turned wide gray eyes to a white form in her peripheral vision and saw standing before her the most gorgeous man she'd ever set eyes on. He was tall, much taller than herself for sure, and pale as moonlight. His golden eyes glowed with mischief as they gazed unabashedly back at her and two white, vulpine ears sat perched atop his silver head, twitching every now and then.

"Um…" She wasn't sure what to say.

"Get your jewel, love," his voice rolled over her like a warm ocean wave. For a moment, she sat, transfixed on the molten pools of amber, until his gaze moved from her to the black orb lying in the sand.

"Oh!" She blushed furiously and reached out with her uninjured hand to pluck the jewel from the sand. As soon as she touched it, the black disappeared into its swirling depths and the purple glow returned. She missed the relieved expression that crossed his handsome face.

Cheeks tinted lightly with a rose hue, Kagome turned to see the youkai approaching her with an outstretched, clawed hand. For a moment, she was frozen with terror. What if he wanted the jewel, too?

But then she realized that he was offering a hand to help her up. Carefully, she put the jewel into her right hand and winced when closing her fingers caused more pain to shoot up her arm. She took his hand with her left and he pulled her gently into a standing position.

"Um, thanks," she whispered, suddenly embarrassed at having been found in so helpless a position. _'He must think I'm so pathetic.'_

She gasped lightly when he grinned in return and spoke with a voice like thick, hot honey. "Think nothing of it, love. I was merely passing through."

Nodding, she pulled her hand away and bowed quickly to the beautiful youkai. "Yes, well, I'm terribly sorry to have troubled you."

"No, no trouble at all, Miss…?" Silver brows rose in question as he regarded the flustered miko with a heated gaze.

"Oh, how rude of me! Kagome! I'm Higurashi Kagome," she smiled amiably when she finally realized that he really meant her no harm. The fluttering in her stomach had dissipated and she took that to mean that she was in no immediate danger.

The grin he flashed her was nothing short of heart-stopping. Heat rose to her cheeks, but she didn't know why. "I am Youko Kurama. It is a pleasure to meet you, love." He bowed to her, but never took his eyes from her face.

Suddenly, there was a shuffling from behind them and they both turned to see Shippo scurrying over to Kagome and perching himself precariously on her shoulder to get a better look at the newcomer. "Thank you for saving us, Youko-san!"

Youko grinned again, but turned his attention to the little kit. "Please, just Youko." Here, he turned his molten gaze back to Kagome. "Honorifics are so very spurious, don't you think?"

For some reason, Kagome found that she was having trouble breathing. "Um..." Heat rose to her cheeks again and she silently cursed her inexperience with boys. She'd never been very flirt-savvy in high school. _'This is no high school heartthrob. This is a god in youkai form.' _Her cheeks darkened at that thought.

"You're a fox, aren't you?" Shippo piped up from her shoulder once again, thankfully saving her from her awkward floundering. He had raised his nose to the air and sniffed lightly at the new youkai.

Kagome nearly sighed in relief when those warm eyes turned away from her to her companion. "Yes, I am. One of the most powerful of my kind," he gloated, grinning and swishing his nine silver tails behind him.

"Well, um," Kagome began, looking out over the sea to the setting sun. "Shippo and I really need to set up camp. We're very tired from traveling all day. So…"

"Oh, yes, of course. I wouldn't want to keep you from your beauty sleep. Though I hardly think you need it, love," he spoke huskily.

Kagome blushed from head to toe at that comment. The whole "love" thing was really starting to get to her. She was about to send him on his way with a wave of her hand, but soon realized that moving her right hand was definitely not a good idea. She hissed in pain and clenched her jaw to keep from screaming.

"Oh, you need to wrap this, love." He was taking her hand which was still clenched around the Shikon Jewel and turning it over to look at her already swollen wrist. "It's only sprained, I think."

She noticed that he took special care not to touch the jewel as he examined her injury.

When he received no answer, just a bewildered stare from the confused girl, he pulled her other arm and gently led her over to her bag. "I will wrap it, love," he said in that silky voice of his. "What can I use?"

She lowered herself to sit beside him, Shippo still perched on her shoulder and still intently studying the other youkai. "In my bag there's a white box with a red cross on it. All my medical supplies are in it," she told him distractedly as he laid her hand gently in his lap and began searching through her bag.

He soon found what he was looking for and pulled out a long strip of stretchy brown cloth. "What a peculiar material," he said, more to himself than anyone else, and began wrapping her sore wrist in the cloth.

"So," he said, still wrapping the cloth tightly around her hand, "are you native to this land?"

He had been dying to know where she came from since he'd first started following her a week ago. Now he would finally get some answers. _'If I play my hand right, perhaps I will get more than answers,' _he snickered to himself.

Kagome was startled out of staring at his twitching silver ears. If her hands hadn't currently been occupied, she would have grabbed them without a second thought. "Well," she began evasively, "not really."

-

AN/ Well, there it is. They finally met. Hoorah!


End file.
